The B-Team
by Ranger9000
Summary: A SCA heavy combatant gets trapped in the world of Ylisse sometime before chapter 3 of Awakening. Before he manages to get his bearings he finds himself drafted into the Ylissian Army along with a few other out of place faces. Can he survive the events of the plot and maybe even make it home? Will he even want to when this is all done?
1. Chapter 1

Authors Note: Started as through what can only be described as a fey mood, this is my first foray into actually posted Fan Fiction so I hope it'll go well. For anyone hoping this Fan Fiction will be following right along with the plot, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but as the name suggests the team aren't going to be the ones taking down the big bads of the main plot, instead I'm hoping to craft a side plot running parallel to the main one. Hopefully I do a good job of it.

Thanks to my two beta readers, all remaining mistakes are mine not theirs.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, nothing I say!

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The clash and clatter of combat rang out over the field, two masses of men and women pushing against each other as they looked to gain dominance over the field. I was standing back from the combat, twisting my pike in my hands, and waiting for out orders to move in.

I didn't have to wait long, one of the pikemen along the line fell to an arrow, and I moved up to take his place. Hefting my pike to attack over the masses of people infront of me I went to work, driving my weapon forward into the face of a swordsman, then yanking back before he could drag my pike with him.

Luck wasn't with me that day though. When I drove my pike forward again I felt myself lose control of the end, and saw another pikeman holding the haft of my weapon, just below the blade. Before I could react I felt the pike being pulled out of my grip, sending me tumbling forward. My hand went to my blade, grabbing my sword from the scabbard at my side, and drawing it, just in-time to divert a stab from the pikeman who had disarmed me.

I took advantage of the deflection and stabbed forward with my blade, my sword catching him in the neck. When I stepped back again I took a moment to catch my breath and looked over the battlefield again. The regular combat practice was one of the things I looked forward to each week, fighting my fellow SCA members for exercise and fun. That day was no exception and I was greatly enjoying myself. The last few matches had been fun, even if I had been killed by those cursed archers repeatedly.

It took me a moment too long to realize I had stopped following the flow of the battle. It was only when my awareness returned that I saw the red and black of a claymore, hurtling right toward my head, just before I felt the sword hit me.  
-

I felt terrible. My head was pounding from where that claymore had hit me. The thing might not have been steel but that rattan still hurt like hell when it got enough force behind it. Add onto that my breathing was still ragged from the fighting, and I found I really didn't want to try to get up. Lying here in the quiet looked like the best solution.

'Wait,' I mentally questioned. 'Quiet?' When I last checked I had been in the middle of a very noisy fight. Even if it had ended I should have still heard people moving around. A quick attempt to move my arms confirmed that I remained in my armour, so where was everyone? Struggling past the searing headache, I opened my eyes, and saw nothing but grass and dirt, so I was still in the field. Pushing off the ground I looked around me, and realized that I was definitely not on the battlefield anymore.

Gone was the mowed lawn of the school field we held our fights, I now realised, replaced with a wild field, overgrown with tall, wild blades of grass that swayed in the wind. The pain in my head was forgotten for a moment. I shot to my feet, then promptly stumbled and fell as I felt the aching return.

Lying face down in the field once again, I muttered to myself "Where the hell am I..?" Panic, confusion, and anger rose in my voice. "Where the hell am I?" Now utterly lost in every sense of the word, I howled a muffled cry into the earth below me. "WHERE THE FUCKING HELL AM I?!"

"Is someone there?" The field around me replied.

The unexpected response caused me to tense up, and I struggled to crane my neck, trying to see if someone was really talking to me, or if I had simply gone insane. My patience didn't last long, as I couldn't wait and risk being left to my own devices. Raising my voice again I shouted "Hello? I could use some help."

"..." The Silence was deafening, and I felt my soul die a little when no response came back.

My breathing picked up speed, my eyes closed, I curled up into a ball, and I resumed muttering to myself. It was in this state that I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin. Instead I screamed and rolled across the ground, then fetching up on a rock after only a few feet. My eyes now wide in terror, I looked for who had grabbed my shoulder.

Standing back where I had started was a woman with hip length red hair, who I probably would have called attractive if I wasn't in the situation I was, and if she hadn't been pointing a spear right in my face. Trying, and failing due to the rock, to push myself back from the spear tip I sputtered, "W-Whoa, p-put that down!"  
"Who are you, and why are you here?" she questioned, with neither her voice, nor the spear point wavering.  
"Hanz!" I blurted out, I used my SCA name for some reason, the urgency of the iron spear-point didn't help. "I have no idea why I am here. I don't even know where here is, for that matter!"

"Your expect me to believe you got to the heartland of Ylisse and you don't know where you are?" Her suspicious tone grew more obvious. "Not only that your wearing armour."

It a moment for what she said to sink in, and when it did I was rapidly on my feet again. Turns out that wasn't a smart idea. The pain in my head was added to by a 'whap' on my left arm from the haft, and I found myself back on the ground yet again. All I could think was 'How the fuck did I end up in Ylisse!?'

It couldn't be real, I had to be in a coma or something and this is just what my brain grabbed onto. I mean I had been playing the game near constantly since I got it only a short while before. I hadn't even finished the thing for god's sake. The business end of the spear suddenly appearing a few inches from my face again quickly snapped me out of my thoughts and back to 'Reality'.

"I said why are you really here?" The woman, I now recognised her as Cordelia, continued. "I am beginning to think you are from Plegia." Obviously she was disinterested in, or disbelieving of, my confusion.

Ohh that didn't look good. It must be near the start of the game, when Phlegia was still launching raids on Ylisse. I had to admit I probably did look like a bandit. Even if all my armour came with me, and I was fairly certain it all did, what I wore into my SCA fights barely passed inspection. Two steel knee and shin-guards, a chestplate, a helmet, steel elbow guards, and a single shoulder guard. All of it collected from left over and spare pieces from former fighters gear, and most of it was covered in rust. My friends always joked that I looked like some rag-tag gladiator and I couldn't really say otherwise.

"I swear I am telling the truth, I don't even have a weapon, how could I be a bandit?" I said, my eyes still focused on the spear.

"You could just be a remarkably incompetent one" The spearwoman responded flatly. Despite that, she pulled the spear back as she did.

"I'm not a bandit, look I'll come quietly." I responded with all the earnesty I could muster in the insanity of the situation, moving my hands slowly into the air, careful not to make any sudden movements. "Just don't kill me, please."

Cordelia went silent for just a few seconds before she lifted the spear and stepped back. Taking that as my queue I sighed, relieved, and pushed myself off the ground for the third time in the last few minutes. I don't really know what I was expecting but, also for the third time today, I found myself lying on the ground, one hand clutching my helmet, while the other laid out to the side.

"I... might need a little help." I said from the ground. Once again Cordelia hesitated, but soon enough I found myself being hoisted into a sitting position and a bottle, that reminded me of a flask from chemistry, was thrust into my hands. From the appearance, and the brown liquid inside, I guessed it was a vulnerary. Did the games ever actually show how they applied these? I always had guessed you were supposed to drink them.

Turns out I was right, and after a tentative first mouthful of the vulnerary, I found the pain in my head receding rapidly. Handing the flask back to Cordelia I pushed myself to my feet for the fourth time, and this time, with genuine relief, I stayed upright. Man, those things worked fast. A few seconds later I was being herded away from the field.

I wasn't even here for more than an hour and I am already being led somewhere by spear point. I could somehow tell this is going to be fun.

God my legs hurt. We hadn't even been walking for that long but I wasn't used to going so far in all my gear. I didn't voice my pain though, didn't need to annoy the girl with the spear who was following behind me. Of course Cordelia was now on her pegasus, those things were huge, maybe, not like I had actually been near a horse in years.

As we walked the silence started to build up, and eventually I couldn't take it any longer. Silence meant my mind could actually think about the situation I was in and right now I didn't want to risk my sanity on that topic. Seeing as I can't really just run on my knowledge from the game without tipping someone off I think I found my conversation topic.

Lifting my voice up I said "I just realized you know my name but I don't know yours. Care to enlighten me?"

No response came back; I swear she seemed a lot friendlier in the game. Looking back at her I saw she was holding herself perfectly straight in the saddle, her eyes watching the surrounding area like a hawk. Maybe she was trying to do this perfectly, that would have been in character for her from what little I knew about her.

Actually, you know I wonder what she was doing out in the field. I mean I doubt someone like her would be out sitting around to kill time. Doubt she would answer me though, and I am perfectly willing to chalk it up to my mind finding a way to connect me to the plot. Actually I wonder where the plot even is right now. I mean it can't be that far in if Plegia is still raiding Ylisse but I wonder if the Great Quake happened yet.

Noise, sounds like rustling leaves, which is odd because I was pretty sure there was no wind. Cordelia seemed to hear it too and was looking around in a way that didn't inspire confidence, her entire body shifted into a battle stance which her pegasus seemed to mirror. This can't be good, this being Ylisse only two things could be out there, bandits or Risen, and to be honest from how the Risen acted in cut scenes I have to hope it's bandits.

"Aye look what we gots here lads, a wench and pup. Get em."

Well that confirmed that its bandits atleast, the source of the voice emerging from the bushes a few dozen feet ahead of us. While another four of them stepped out around us, boxing us in. God I wish I had a weapon right now, and Chrom and the Shepherds are nowhere in sight, why didn't I get dropped in with them.

Wait focus, bandits all around, big guy to my right coming up with an axe. Shit I don't think I want to get hit with that, don't need to die in the coma and go under in real life. Luckily this guy was about as good a fighter as a SCA brute fighter, as in not at all. The axe swing fell short and buried itself in the ground almost up to its haft. Taking advantage of the bandit's horrible skill I punched him in the face. The blow, carried out through an armoured gauntlet, quickly left the bandit with a broken nose and my fist in a bit more pain then I would like, still though I had gotten into my fair share of fights so I managed to avoid breaking my hand.

My punch wasn't enough to floor the bandit but it did get him to release his grip on the axe. Following it up with my other hand I managed to send him to the ground and I turned to take his axe. Not that I had any real idea how to use it past the occasional wood chopping or random weapons SCA fight. Looking around as I gave the axe a mighty tug I saw that the other bandits weren't all standing around doing nothing.

The other three bandits were currently going after Cordelia, who was admittedly doing a very good job of holding them off. I think it might have helped that I just took out the only axe wielder in the group other than the leader. Who was still standing on the road just watching us? Are the enemy leaders really not going to move around unless we get into striking range of them? Ok going to make a promise to myself to not complain about things that benefit me.

Pulling the axe from the ground I ran toward where Cordelia was fending off the trio of ruffians, hefting the axe over my shoulder as I moved. I guess the three had expected their friend to deal with me fairly easily and they didn't notice me till their boss shouted at them to watch their backs, but by then I was already on the first one, twisting my body as best I could to swing the axe as hard as possible.

And I completely missed the ruffian leaving myself open to his sword. The slash I was expecting to come from him didn't happen though and as soon as I recovered I saw why. A spear thrust from Cordelia had caught the distracted Ruffian through the chest and ya, it wasn't very pretty, I guess I am going to have to get used to seeing that aren't I?

SWORD! One of the Ruffian's blades of the just skimming my helmet as I pulled back, luckily resulting in nothing more than a loud clanging in my ear. Okay next promise to myself, pay attention when fighting in a life or death situation. Bringing up the axe again I swung at the Ruffian who had just tried to cut my head open, and missed again, damn this unwieldy weapon. The Ruffian had jumped back to avoid my hack though and he caught a rock when he landed, causing him to stumble long enough for me to recover, third time's a charm right?

Well sort of apparently. The Ruffian managed to dodge my attack once again, or atleast he did with his upper body. What he didn't manage to get out of the way intime, and what I didn't even plan on hitting, was his foot. The cry of pain the guy let out was enough to nearly deafen me and I decided to take the quickest way to shutting him up, knocking him out cold like the first guy who tried to attack me. I also decided to take the sword the guy was carrying because screw axes, I never liked them anyway.

While I had been blundering with the axe, Cordelia had finished off the other Ruffian, leaving only the leader blocking the road infront of us. To be honest I wonder if we could just go around the guy, I mean he hasn't moved an inch while we slaughtered his crew-

"Rrrrgh, ya killed mah boys but ya not gonna get past me."

Well that idea's out the window, looks like we are going to have to go through him. Looking over at Cordelia I gave her a nod, which she returned before we both moved to attack the bandit. Cordelia, having the benefit of being on a... horse?, reached the bandit first and stabbed forward with her spear. The leader stepped around the spear and swung overhead, Cordelia's pegasus jumped back just in time to avoid the vicious swing.

Taking my chance as soon as I came into range I slashed at the Bandit's side, the distracted leader twisting away too late and I scored a long cut on his arm, causing him to grunt in pain. He didn't have long to deal with it though as another thrust from Cordelia brought him down, dammit stop stealing my kills, your taking my exp.

Still though I don't really mind, I would like to avoid killing anyone here as long as I can. Of course though if I get dragged into the plot I don't think I will be able to avoid it for long. Also Cordelia is looking at me now, right I am a prisoner, probably shouldn't keep holding onto the sword.

Letting the sword clatter to the ground I lifted my hand over my head again and said "Hey don't worry, I'm not going to do anything. Don't think I could win anyways, you did most of the work."

"Keep the sword." Cordelia said in a fair bit friendlier tone than before.

"You sure?"

"I don't think you could beat me, so I don't see much threat in it."

"I could just be hiding some super skill."

"Do you want to have to punch your way to a weapon if we run into bandits again or not?"

"Shutting up now."

As I reached down to pick up the sword again she added "Also thank you for the help"

"I didn't exactly do much. You could have probably handled it on your own." I said as I straightened out again, motioning to the two I knocked out.

"What are we going to do about those two?"

"Take their weapons and leave them."

"Not going to take them back to Ylisse?"

"If you hadn't cut one of their feet in half we could have. Bringing them along now would slow us down drastically, and if we took the one you didn't hobble then the other one would most likely die out here."

"I didn't think you would care, they did just try to kill us."

"Do you want to leave him for dead? They tried to kill you too."

"….No" I said with a sigh, as we made to leave I asked again "So you didn't tell me your name before, any chance you will now?"

It almost seemed like she wasn't going to answer, but as she motioned her pegasus forward she turned back to look at me and said "Cordelia, I am one of Ylisse's Pegasus Knights. Now can I ask where you learned to use a sword?"

"Who says I learned?" I said back as we continued down the road. I was honestly surprised it even appeared I was trained at all, I guess Kendo and SCA actually did something.

"I am going to be honest, you're not very good, but you knew more than someone who was using one for their first time, and you were much better than when you used that axe."

"Yah I am not going to touch an axe again if I can avoid it."

"So are you going to answer my question?"

Well looks like its cover story time "Uhh well, I was a mercenary. Only been at it for a few months though, and I think my term ended with them because you found me in that field."

"So they abandoned you?"

"Yah….I guess they did, not sure why though, thought I was getting along well."

"Hmm…"

With that the conversation died off again and we continued on our way.

It took till the next day for us to reach Ylisse, mostly because I had to walk. Cordelia said, in one of the now somewhat more frequent conversations we had, that it would have only taken her a few hours if she had been flying. By the time we reached the capital though I could swear my legs were falling off.

Ylisse was an impressive sight though; the castle towering over a large city. People bustled through the streets going about their daily business. My rust covered armour drew a few stares as Cordelia directed me through the streets. I didn't get much time to look around because Cordelia was driving me to quickly reach what looked like a barracks from the outside, a pair of soldiers standing guard at the entrance.

"Hail" Cordelia shouted to the pair, "I need you two to watch this man while I deal with business inside."

"And who is this man. He certainly isn't one of ours." The guard on the right shouted back, his voice dropping in volume as we neared.

"I found him a day west of the Capital. He says he doesn't know how he got dumped there by his former company."

"A Bandit?"

"Potentially so I need you to watch him."

Well thanks Cordelia, I thought me killing the other bandits might have made you think otherwise. Of course it wouldn't be very odd for a bandit to kill another bandit to save his own skin would it? Still though not much I can do about it right now, Cordelia was already stepping inside and the guards were staring at me like I was about to try to attack them at any moment. Even if I was a bandit do they think I would be so stupid to try to cut down two guards and run off in the middle of a capital city? I mean the games didn't really make it seem like the bandits had any sort of intelligence but that would be a bit much.

Lacking anything better to do I sat down on the side of the street and looked around. There was not much to see, the area around the barracks seemed to be mostly blacksmiths and other jobs that military personnel would need on hand. So I ended up spending most of my time staring back at the two guards. They were dressed like the standard Ylissian mooks you saw in a few cut scenes. They wore all blue clothing under the almost conquistador like armour. They also wore those blue, mostly face hiding, scarves. I wondered why they would wear them pulled up on a good day like this, is it regulation or something?

I managed to kill a good bit of time mulling over what kind of person designed those abominations of a uniform and a few more worrying subjects related to the game., and soon enough Cordelia came back, motioning for me to come into the barracks.

When I entered the barracks I found myself under the glare of three sets of eyes: Cordelia's, a soldier wearing the same gear as the men outside but with some more flourishes, and Phila herself. Why she was here I am not exactly sure, I don't think I have any chance of being put onto the pegasus knight roster.

"So this is the mercenary you picked up?" The soldier who I am guessing is of some higher rank, said, "Doesn't look like much."

"He isn't much" Cordelia answered, if it wasn't true I might have been hurt by that statement, "But he can learn."

Well it looks like I am on the road to potentially being hired by someone. In all honesty I am not sure if this is a good or a bad thing. It means that I am going to be potentially one step closer to the plot, but I also remember what happens to the Ylissian army when Plegia invades.

"With all everything going as it is, he isn't likely to get any time to learn." the soldier said back.  
You know what, screw it, maybe if I get lucky I can somehow avert whatever disaster hit the Ylissian Army, speaking up I said "Sir, we were attacked just a day away from the capital, I don't think you can afford to be picky about who you take on."

"I can be as picky about what soldiers I take on as I want" the soldier growled and then sighed, "But you have a point, we are overtaxed as it is and any extra soldiers could be helpful. Report to the armoury and we will get you properly outfitted."

With that the soldier turned around and left, Phila following him. Why was she even here, she didn't even say anything. That left Cordelia to show me where the armoury was.

"So why did you sign me up for the army?" I asked the redhead beside me.

"You said you were a mercenary, and we need soldiers, better than trying to fend for yourself against bandits isn't it?" she replied back.

"That's why I agreed to it. Of course I can't help thinking that something is escalating out there."

Cordelia didn't respond again until we reached the armoury, at which point she half waved goodbye and then left. Looking down at my rusty armour again I had the strangest feeling I might not be keeping it, but at the very least I might stop being at threat of getting tetanus.

Going into the armoury I found a single blacksmith at work, luckily not doing any hot work right now that would keep his attention.

Raising my voice over the noise of his work I said "Hail sir, I am here for some gear."

The blacksmith worked for a minute longer before he put down his tools, "A new recruit? Don't get many of those since the last Exalt died. You look like your armoured already, even if I hesitate to call that rust bucket you're wearing armour."

"I didn't have access to much cleaning gear, and I pieced this together out of what I could salvage off a few battlefields."

"Bah, the military is taking on mercenaries now? People like you are the reason half this world is going falling apart at the seams."

Well that went downhill fast, can't say I didn't expect it though, when your country is being torn apart by bandits and thugs, a bit of animosity toward sell swords is to be expected.  
"Hey I volunteered to work for Ylisse, those bandits out there give us all a bad name." I said in my not entirely true defense.

All I got in response to that was a grunt from the blacksmith before he looked me over again and walked over to the armour racks. There wasn't exactly that many of them but he still managed to take a few minutes to pick one. Turning toward me he said "Well if you're going to be joining the right side we might as well get you equipped properly. Get that rusty monstrosity off yourself and test this."

A few minutes of prying the rusty armour off myself and strapping in the new gear later, and I was good to go. I guess I have a pretty average build here as the armour fit pretty well, rather annoyingly though I had to wear that blue scarf thing as well.

The only thing I got to keep was my helmet, it being the only non-rusty piece of armour I had, and it had a drop down visor that gave me more protection than those weird Conquistador helmets most of the soldiers wore. Apparently the army here allows a fair bit of customization of their uniform; just most people are too boring to do it, or maybe they just didn't want to attract attention to themselves. Regardless I would rather go with the extra head face protection even if it meant attracting some attention. I also picked up a spear to add to the iron sword from before, not exactly the best gear but it's better than nothing. Stepping outside the armoury I nearly ran into a soldier standing right outside the door, just skidding to a stop before I could bowl them over.  
Before I could really get a good look at the soldier infront of me, I heard a female voice, "You're Hanz right?"

A nod is all I could get out before she continued "I'm Amelia, the Sergeant told me to lead you to the training field."

Wait, Amelia is here? Getting a better look at what I can see through the armour, she looked like Amelia, except closer to my own age. The blond hair and blue eyes combination, along with the way she seemed to be completely unused to the armour she was wearing, seemed to fit her personality from Sacred Stones perfectly. I wonder what her explanation for why she is here is, and I got to admit I would have expected her to be serving Phelgia if I wasn't looking at her right now, guess she doesn't need to be working for the enemy first this time.

Following Amelia through the barracks I barely had a chance to talk, she was a lot more lively then I remember from Sacred Stones.

"So you're a new recruit too?"

"Why did you sign up?"

"Why do you have that helmet?"

"How long do you think we will be training?"

Under the barrage of questions I feel into my standard routine when dealing with being overwhelmed, nod and go along with it. The animated girl didn't even notice my complete lack of proper responses as we continued. Eventually we reached the training field and I was flat out shocked at who I saw. Even with the differing uniforms I recognized almost everyone gathered around, and none of them were supposed to be here. I managed to keep moving even through the shock luckily enough and had atleast temporarily recovered by the time we reached the group. I had also by that time confirmed that yes, I was seeing who I was seeing.

Nephenee, recognizable because she had customized her uniform like she had in Radiant Dawn, the same red ribbon, same helmet, and that same green hair. Aran would have been harder to recognize if I wasn't lucky enough to have arrived when he wasn't wearing his helmet. Much the same with Edward, who looked a bit older than his game self, and who was also, other than me, the only person with an actual sword on their person in the group, and if Edward was here that meant the bowman, who was actually wearing his full gear, was Leonardo, who also looked older. Gilliam stood infront of the group, his armour painted slightly differently and making everyone else look tiny comparatively. The last guy in the group was the only one I didn't recognize was standing in the back, he wore a lot less armour then the rest of the squad, with a hood pulled up around shaggy brown hair. My guess would be he was the squad rouge, and twenty bucks says he is going to be as cynical as he looks.

Gilliam turned to look at us as we arrived and said "And that makes everyone. Introduce yourself to the squad."

One round of introductions, later and I had learned that the rogues name was Koel. Other than that everyone was exactly who I expected them to be, seriously what was going on here? I didn't get long to dwell on it though, as Gilliam, who not to my surprise was the squad sergeant, spoke up "Ok recruits time for a run."

Without another word Gilliam turned around and began running in his full knight gear. The rest of us spared a few glances at each other before following behind him. Sighing to myself I wondered why I had to do so much moving around in my armour these last few days. I mean I was already exhausted from walking for a day to get here, and now we are going on a run. I can already feel my legs protesting the movements, but no way I was going to let something as light as a run make me look like the weakest member of the squad.

About five minutes into the run I realized I didn't really have much to worry about. Everyone else in the squad seemed to have never worn armour much. Amelia was already lagging behind the group, along with Leonardo. Aran and Nephenee were doing slightly better but were falling back too. The only guy who was keeping up with Gilliam and me was Koel, and I would say that was because he was maybe wearing 20kgs less than us.

Only maybe 20 minutes after we started we had our first man down. Edward ended up stumbling mid run and didn't get back up. We ran past his sprawled out form a few times before he finally pulled himself up and got out of the way. The next person down was Leonardo, collapsing in much the same way as his friend, except he nearly took Amelia with him. Amelia was actually clinging on tenaciously, I swear she looked like she was about to die any second but she kept on running with us. Sadly though she and Aran couldn't keep up, and both of them fell out of the run at about the exact same time.

At that point Gilliam called it to an end, the three of us who were still keeping up with him reacting to the run in our own way. Nephenee collapsed to the ground on her back, Koel double over hacking up a lung, and I did what I always did at the end of a long run, walking without feeling my legs. Completing another two laps of the run area before my legs finally gave out and I stopped.  
By the time we were all breathing again Gilliam was staring us over, the run having done absolutely nothing to his demeanor. The hard glare looking over all of us as he thought over something, and about a minute later he said "Now grab your weapons and follow me."

The exasperated sighs from pretty much everyone in the squad, and a muttered "Slave driver" comment from Koel, had to have been loud enough for Gilliam to hear, but he didn't give any reaction that he did. Picking up our scattered weapons, abandoned at the start of our run, we fell into line behind him. A few of the scattered guards throughout our path laughing at our ragtag appearance, which made sense as most of us were either leaning on our weapons for support or were more stumbling then walking. By the time we reached the weapons room though most of us were atleast in a semblance of good shape.

The weapons room was pretty well equipped really. A number of archery targets sat along one wall of the room, and along the other was a group of combat dummies. Gilliam didn't need to give anything more than a glare at us before we moved out infront of the combat dummies, well everyone except Leonardo, who lined up across from the archery targets.

Gilliam decided to start with Leonardo first, stepping in behind him and tapping him on the shoulder. The kid responded by bringing up his bow and letting loose his first arrow. All I got to say about the kid was that he could shoot. Beside me Amelia let out a bit of a shocked gasp as Leonardo put his first arrow dead center on the target.

Mumbling to the girl beside me I said "Looks like our backs are covered eh?"

Amelia didn't say anything in response as she continued to watch Leonardo put arrow after arrow into the bullseye.

"Damn this guy is going to show us up" Aran grumbled from down the line. Nephenee and Koel remained silent as Edward cheered his friend on.

When Leonardo finished up with his quiver Gilliam turned without a word and moved onto Aran. The soldier readied his lance before driving it into the target infront of him. The weapon was off center and just clipped through the side of the target. The hit would have taken out someone kidney but wasn't a directly lethal. His next stab caught the targets shoulder. Another non-fatal wound but that one would have been crippling. A third stab caught the targets other shoulder, and it was at that point that Gilliam moved on to Nephenee.

The female soldier did a bit better then Aran, her three stabs catching the target in the gut, the shoulder and a knick to the head respectively. Atleast the gut hit would have been fatal, the one to the head might have been if the target wasn't wearing a helmet. With that Gilliam moved onto me.

Readying my lance I took a second to remember my training, spear work was like bayonet work, attack attack attack. Stepping forward I drove my lance into targets stomach, pulling back and immediately striking again at the center of the rib cage, and finally a stab to the dummies neck. The three strikes weren't the fastest I had done, but I made sure to put them all on target. Stepping back to my original position I saw Gilliam still standing behind me, the same look on his face, it took me a moment before I realized he expected me to use my sword too. Putting the lance to the side I drew the former bandit's sword and slashed at the target. The blade missing a vulnerable shoulder joint and instead slicing across the dummies shoulder, my second slash came down on the targets head, just like a kendo strike, and my third move was a botched stab to the neck. I aimed a bit too high and deflected off the base of the dummies chin.

Gilliam had moved on to Amelia before I had a chance to sheath my blade. The recruit could barely hold her lance properly and her following stab barely stuck into the straw dummy. She didn't let that discourage her, and as soon as she had regained her balance she drove her lance into the dummies eye, and admittedly good stab but not one that worked well in combat, her final stab missed the target entirely, passing just under the shoulder of the dummy.

"Target moving too fast for you girl?" Koel chimed up from his corner.

As Gilliam moved on I glanced over at Amelia and saw that she was biting at her lip, obviously displeased with that miss at the end, and Koel's comment didn't help either. Not that I could exactly blame her, it's always a bummer to end on a low note. As it was I missed the first two of Edward's strikes, surprised at how fast the guy started. The third one I only just caught, and even then it was little more than a blur that cut across the front of the dummy.

Koel was up last, the rogue unsheathing his blade and setting onto the target. He did about as well as I did with my sword, maybe a bit better. Three quick stabs to the lung, neck and a skid off the chest, the guy knew where to aim atleast. With his testing completed Gilliam walked over to the edge of the room and looked us all over again.

"The biggest lesson on the battlefield is that no soldier fights alone. As such from this day on you will train with your partner, you will get to know your partner as well as yourself, and you will keep eachother alive." Gilliam said in a harsh voice. He took a few moments to let that sink in before he continued "Here are your partners, Edward you're with Leonardo, Koel you're with Nephenee, Hanz you're with Amelia, and Aran you're with me, any questions?"

No one spoke up, not wanting to draw the attention of the glaring Gilliam. Aran shifted on his feet as Gilliam turned and walked out of the room, then he looked at the rest of us, not sure if he should follow. It didn't take long for him to decide that it was safer to follow the imposing sergeant then risk angering him and he bolted out of the room in pursuit. Leonardo and Edward burst into laughter at Aran's reaction and left the training room. Nephenee and Koel left next, I had to wonder what the odds were that the one person from the games who I knew hates talking, got paired with the guy who I am pretty sure doesn't like talking either.

I wasn't exactly ready to abandon a bit of practice though, it would help keep my mind off my situation of still not knowing how the hell I had gotten here. Picking up my lance and turning back to the dummy I let out my pent up frustration at my predicament out in a flurry of jabs and blows. I had to admit that I when I stepped back from the target a few minutes later I wasn't expecting Amelia to still be standing in the room, her eyes a bit wide at the violent assault I had just unleashed on the dummy.

"Uhh, sorry about that, just a bit frustrated today" I said, scratching the back of my head nervously as I did.

Amelia just stared back at the dummy, which was leaking straw from a few of the larger hits I had given it, and then asked "Can you show me how you did that? When I try I can hardly get enough power to hit once."

Well I guess this is what Gilliam meant by train together but I didn't really think I would be qualified to teach anyone anything, still though the look in Amelia's eyes didn't really give me a choice.

"Ok line up on a target and I'll see what I can do."

Amelia lined up infront of the dummy beside me and lifted her lance again, the front end barely above the ground. Putting my hand up I said "Stop it right there. Before you can actually try to hit the target you need to be able to hold your weapon properly. Even if you lose a bit of range it's better that your weapon is stable so move your grip a bit farther forward."

Amelia followed my advice and soon enough she found a point on the lance where she could keep it from falling into the ground, even if she had to pretty much hold the thing at the halfway point.

"Ok that's better, now go for the kill," I said as I gestured to the dummy.

Taking a small step forward Amelia drove her lance into the dummies stomach, it was definitely a stronger hit then her earlier hits, but it was still a pretty weak hit, barely pushing into the target.  
"Now try to use your legs more, and twist your body into the strike, like this" Leveling my lance at the target I jammed it forward, using my legs and upper body instead of my arms to add force behind my strike.

Amelia readied herself and tried to repeat what I did, and she sort of got it. Her strike had more force but she was still using her arms to much, which I didn't hesitate to tell her. We kept at it for about half an hour before she managed to not only hit the target much harder, but she managed to fully impale the target on her lance, which she promptly let go of in shock as resistance disappeared.

Smiling I said "Well that was impressive, but you need to make sure you don't let go next time, anyways I think we should stop there today."

Amelia let out a little laugh at my jab and then said "Thanks, I don't know if I could have kept this up much longer, I can barely feel my arms."

"That's pretty normal, you'll get used to it though."

Amelia chewed on her lip for a moment and as we left the training room she asked "I thought you were a recruit too. Shouldn't you be as unused to this as me?"

"Ahh… Well, I am a recruit in the Ylisse army yes, but I'm not new to fighting."

"So you were a mercenary?" Amelia said. Giving me a glare that was scarier than I would have thought would be possible from the girl. Damn people really don't like mercenaries around here do they. Ok got time for a cover story before the person who is supposed to be watching my back hates me.

"Hey I didn't say that, though you're right" I sighed, "They came to my village and I ended up in a bar fight with some of them. Next thing I knew they had knocked me out and conscripted me into their group."

"Did your company raid villages?"

"No we weren't bandits. Most of our work was in Plegia or Ferox. We were passing through Ylisse and I can't remember what happened but I woke up in a field and my company had ditched me." I said back, trying my hardest to sound convincing.

Amelia's glare lessened a bit at my response but I could tell she wasn't fully convinced.

"Look I know most people lump mercenaries in with Bandits, but some of us want to help the innocents instead of hurting them." I growled, seriously I am getting sick of people assuming that I am some villager murderer, "I signed up because I want to help."

Thank god Amelia is a nice person at heart. Her glare died away after only a few moments longer and she went back to her bubbly self, of course that also meant I was quickly under a barrage of questions again, and I reacted the same way I did before, smile and nod.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes: Hey all, here's chapter 2 of The B-Team, I feel like I might be causing a bit of a bad precedent on my part because I'm going to tell you now, I am expecting 2 weeks between update dates (assuming all goes well), still though I had this chapter ready to go and felt like I couldn't leave it sitting around right now. Also at my reviewers

Gunlord500; Thanks for the review, hopefully the story will stay interesting :P

catoust; As much as SCA fighters tend to hate to admit it, ya it translates a fair bit to L.A.R. , though without magic and instead of using foam weapons we use sticks covered in a thin layer of tape and hit eachother full force (so just a bit more violent). Good to see your looking forward to more, hopefully I can live up to providing a good story.

Disclaimer: Still don't own Fire Emblem, if I did all the games would be translated and over here.

* * *

You know I had always wondered if they ate different food here in the Fire Emblem universe. I must admit I was a little disappointed when after a day of searching I found that they pretty much ate the same food as people did on Earth. Except for some reason they had a lot of types of pie.

Still though I was was not surprised that we saw none of that, instead the canteen served us the usual watered gruel that you would expect. I grabbed my bowl and joined the rest of the squad, minus Gilliam, at the table we usually took. Amelia moving over to make room at the end of the table as I sat down across from Nephenee and Koel, the two of them, for all the silence they had displayed on the first day, were still dead quiet. Guess its going to take more than a day for the buddy system to kick in with those two. Edward and Leonardo, who had for some reason decided to sit at opposite ends of the table, were practically shouting their conversation at eachother, much to the annoyance of my eardrums, and Aran was half asleep on the table. The guy must have gotten run ragged by Gilliam and he was starting to sleeping whenever our sergeant wasn't around.

I could sympathise with the guy, with all the walking and running I've done since I got here, not to mention not getting any sleep yesterday thanks my brain refusing to shut off, I was ready to fall asleep myself. I still had no idea how I had gotten here, or for that matter, whether I was even here at all. Hell by all probably I was just out cold on a hospital bed somewhere because what else other than a coma fantasy would result in characters from entirely different fire emblems showing up here.

It was about then that I noticed someone was shaking my shoulder. As soon as I snapped back into reality Amelia said "Hey, you should eat your food before it gets cold"

"I'd be more worried about that if this was actually food." I responded back as I looked down at the gruel.

The glare that came from the blond haired girl was enough to make me start eating the horrible tasting food. Jesus Amelia could be scary when she wanted to be.

By the time Gilliam arrived to bring an end to breakfast and a start to the day's training I had managed to eat most of the gruel despite its horrible taste. Grabbing our weapons from where we left them we all packed up and followed behind our sergeant as he lead us to one of the many courtyards in the barracks.

After going through another run, which went about as well as the last one, the sergeant had us all line up on one side of the courtyard where he looked over us and said. "That run was terrible recruits, if only three of us are still standing at the end of battle by fatigue alone then we aren't going to make it to the end of battle at all. I'm expecting that by the end of this everyone one of you will keep up with me, and if you can't then you better atleast be able to keep up with your partner."

Turning away from us he said, "For today we are going to go over the very basics of the weapons you all use." Pointing to one patch of the courtyard he said "Everyone who uses a lance line up over there" Pointing to another patch he said "Swords over there, Leonardo, stay where you are."

Well that left me at a bit of a predicament with my choice of weapons. It didn't really take more than a minute to decide that I might as well stick with the buddy system and tag along with Amelia.

Gilliam started with us, which made sense seeing as we were the largest group. Taking a minute to look us over he stopped at me and I swear to god gave me a small nod. Guess I made the right choice then.

"Now then everyone get yourselves into what you think is the proper position to handle a lance." The sergeant said as he looked us over.

Positioning myself in the stance I had been using for quite some time, a mix of what I learned in basic and what I had picked up during my SCA fighting. Which meant that I was fully expecting Gilliam to be on my ass about my bad habits, and by god I was right.

"Widen your feet, you're off balance."

"Perpendicular feet, or you'll lose most of your power."

"Weapon point down, you're aiming at someones head, which you're likely going to miss."

On and on for quite a long while, though I didn't have it as bad as most seeing as I had most of the basics down. Sadly despite my attempt to get Amelia to stop pointing her lance at her opponents feet, she still fell back into doing it again today, and got chewed out for it.

Eventually though Gilliam left us to stand in the positions he had left us in, and went off back into the barracks. Coming back with with a number of staffs which he tossed at our feet. After looking us over again to make sure none of us had moved he said "At ease."

As we relaxed into a more comfortable position, the sergeant pointed to the staffs and said "Everyone grab one and face off against another lancer, you're fighting to first hit."

Ohh a mock fight, what fun. Before I could even pick someone to fight I saw Amelia lined up opposite me. Well I didn't think their was much of a fight to be had in all honesty. Man did I ever sound like a cocky bastard. Either way Amelia decided to make the first move, stepping forward and trying a rapid stab at my chest.

That got her all of nowhere, it was nothing I hadn't seen a good number of times before and from much stronger fighters. Pushing her strike away with a quick snap of my wrist. I followed up with a quick jab of my own to her shoulder, pulling back in time so my strike was nothing more than a tap, though it would still be enough to stun her arm.

I didn't even say anything, mainly because Amelia certainly didn't feel like quitting yet. Taking a few moments to catch her breath she tried to charge me again. Which didn't really get her any farther as I tapped her other shoulder. I kinda felt bad about it but at the same time it was better it happened here then on the battlefield.

A third match also ended in another defeat for the blond haired recruit, deciding it was time to change tactics I instead led off on the fourth fight. Except I held back my attack to a good extent, giving her just enough time deflect it, but instead of giving her a chance to counterattack I struck again and again and again. Giving her just enough to time to deflect each one. Then just as she looked like she was starting to get comfortable with the fight I sped up or changed tactics, until eventually she couldn't stop a sweeping strike that I directed at her leg.

The end result of the extended fight was one rather tired Amelia and even I was panting. Still though the blond haired recruit looked over and said "You... were holding back weren't you."

"Yah, I didn't think we would get much done if the fights kept going the way of the first three." I said back, a bit sheepishly because I got caught.

"Well don't please. I won't improve if you don't go all out." The girl said with a bit of annoyance in her voice.

At that point Gilliam returned, having finished whatever he was doing with the other two groups, or atleast that was what I thought. Instead he was actually just coming over to grab me and pull me over to the sword group, apparently deciding I had enough lance work for now. After dumping me their (and leaving us in the rather awkward position of having three people to deal with instead of an even number) he wandered back off to square off against Aran.

"So... loser switches out?" I said to the other two.

"Sounds good." Edward said, while Koel just gave me a stare that screamed "No shit sherlock"

I found out over the next hour that I was by far the worst person in the squad so far as swordfighting went. Koel fought with the kind of experience I would have expected out of a veteran, managing to take me out in no time flat every time I went against him. Edward on the other hand just had raw talent, which was much better than the little experience but no real natural talent that I had. In the end getting my ass kicked repeatedly by the two of them certainly lowered whatever high opinions I might have gotten of myself when I beat Amelia.

Eventually though Gilliam called us all to a halt, before sending us for yet another run and finally dismissing us. Leaving us the second half of the day to ourselves, which we didn't really make much use of as half the squad was as limp as noodles.

I'd like to say that the majority of rest of the following two weeks were actually more interesting, but they weren't. Every day we did more training, working harder to try to improve, though by no extent where we becoming more than the newest of recruits. Two weeks wasn't exactly much time after all.

Hell I even stopped worrying about not getting home and instead started worrying about actually surviving the plot, mostly thanks to being reminded of how little time we likely actually had.

_I sighed as I leaned out of the bed, looking around to confirm that everyone else was asleep. I had been here in Ylisse for five days now, and so they had been all characterized by a lack of sleep. I was being run ragged at this point, all because my brain wouldn't just shut off no matter how long I had been trying to sleep. The thoughts were always the same, just how the hell did I get to Ylisse? Every night I always came to the same conclusion, it had to all be fake, just something dreamed up by my comatose mind._

_I just wished I actually believed that._

_Wandering out into the hall I made my way to the nearest courtyard, the night watch not really caring about the lone wandering recruit. Once I found myself a patch of ground that wasn't too soggy with collecting dew I sat down, looking up at the stars above. It was amazing how many stars there were here, and how clear they showed through due to the lack of light._

_Eventually I just layed back to get a better view of the sky, it also let me get atleast a bit more relaxation out of the whole thing. It was only a few minutes after I had layed back that I noticed a some soft footsteps, followed by the sounds of someone else dropping onto the grass. Tilting my head I saw Amelia seated beside me._

_"What brings you around at this hour of the morning?" I said joking._

_"Couldn't sleep, what about you?" She said._

_"Same, couldn't sleep, though my reasons are likely different than yours."_

_"Well you're half the reason I'm up right now, you really aren't that quiet."_

_"Hey, sneaking is Koel's job not mine." I said with a shrug, then decided to ask, "So what's the other half?"_

_Tapping her fingers on her arm she said, "I don't really know, Prince Chrom has apparently gone off to Feroxi, and the bandits are coming out in more numbers. It kinda feels like something is building up out there doesn't it?"_

_If only you knew the shit we were in for Amelia, "Ya it does, I just hope we'll be ready for it when it comes."_

Thanks to that conversation I realized how dire our situation was. If Chrom was in Feroxi then we probably had at best another week, maybe two before the plot really kicked off, and by that time none of us were really going to be much better than we were now. I didn't get much sleep that night either, but atleast I wasn't frustrating myself over something I likely had no control over this time.

I spent the rest of the time training as hard as I could, determined that I would be as ready as I could be when the plot came a knocking. I started practicing outside of the stuff Gilliam assigned to us, and it wasn't long before Amelia joined in on the after hours practice, her own worry driving her as the tension in the air almost became palpable. Then a few days later Edward stumbled on us training and joined in, bringing Leonardo along with him when he showed up the next day. As it was the four of us became rather good, I'd hesitate to say friends because we only knew eachother for a fortnight, but we were definitely on that road. As for the other four, Aran rarely spent a free hour awake, Gilliam was rather unapproachable, and Nephenee and Koel were usually hanging out with eachother instead of us.

Still though I had to admit I actually started to settle in, even having fun. Despite that my sleep did not improve, and it started to become more and more noticeable, infact the only person who I think didn't notice it was Gilliam. Though if it wasn't for the occasional jab from Koel I would have thought he hadn't noticed either. The other three members of the little after hours training club were the only ones who really reacted that much though. Edward made some rather spirited attempts to keep me awake, Leonardo offered some suggestions to get to sleep, and Amelia asked endless questions. Like she was doing one morning while I was trying to eat my breakfast

"You really should sleep more, you look barely awake and it's not even dark yet."

"I know about this type of tea that can put you to sleep like a log, my mother used to make it when I was a kid, it might help you sleep."

"What if you fall asleep during training?"

Eventually I just sighed and smiled at the over-eager girl, "Don't worry Amelia I'm fine. I'm just still getting used to not sleeping on the ground every night."

That managed to buy me enough time to shovel my breakfast into my mouth before Amelia started up another conversation.

"Hey did you hear that Lord Chrom came back from Feroxi today?"

That really caught my attention. If they were coming back though that meant that things were about to come to a head for Ylisse, as in most likely tonight and we had guard duty. We weren't anywhere even close to prepared. I had seen firsthand that the Exalt's insistence on a minimal military more or less left the entire Halidom unprotected. What little military there was was all clustered in the Capital, and only scattered units guarded the border. The Royal Pegasus Knights were the only real mobile force other than the Shepherds that Ylisse had.

And Plegia would be knocking down our gates any time now.

"Ya I heard, apparently they managed to get the Khans on our side." Edward said from his end of the table, pulling my mind back to the conversation at hand.

"Maybe the Feroxi will actually help, if they can avoid killing eachother for fun on the way down here." Koel deadpanned.

"Hey, don' be like that Koel, any help is good help." Nephenee said to the cynical soldier, the girl had opened up a fair bit with the group, though she still didn't talk that much.

"I wonder if we'll get to see the Shepherds" Leonardo added from his end of the table.

I expected Aran to comment but instead he gave a resounding "…." Further inspection revealed he was asleep, his head buried in his hands.

Further conversation was interrupted when Gilliam walked up to the table, the clanking of his armour warning us to his presence only a moment before he was at the table. For a giant of a man he was surprisingly stealthy, as we had learned multiple times over the last two weeks.

"Come on recruits, time for guard duty."

Ditching whatever food was left on the table we grabbed our weapons and shields from where they were resting on the wall and followed our sergeant though the halls of the Castle. If we had nothing else to show for our training, atleast now we looked proper as we marched to our positions, not that far from where the Exalt's rooms were really.

As we took up positions along the hallway my mind wandered elsewhere. I knew that sometime after Chrom came back from Feroxi, there would be an assassination attempt on the Exalt's life. The game seemed to have implied it would happen the same day as they got back, which would put it tonight. If it was tonight that would also most likely be the only chance we would have of getting into the plot before Ylisse was invaded, and if we didn't get involved in the plot it could have potentially fatal consequences for us if we were following narrative laws, and I couldn't shake the feeling that we were.

"I know you're tired but if you don't pay attention Gilliam's going to have you running laps all day tomorrow." Amelia said from the other end of the doorway we were guarding, poking me with the blunt end of her lance.

"I know, I know" I said, pushing the lance away and looking down the hallway, behind us the rest of the squad was guarding various passageways that lead into the hallway. Gilliam and Aran taking the entryway at the far end of the hallway, while the other two pairs were standing opposite eachother midway down the hall.

We were mostly quiet as we stood guard, threat of Gilliam's attention keeping us rooted in place and silent as the day turning to night. It was right around when our shift was ending, and just as I was thinking that maybe the assassination attempt wouldn't happen tonight, when the atmosphere in the castle changed. It wasn't me that noticed it either, across from me Amelia gripped her lance tighter and started looking around.

"Do you feel that" she said as she looked out into the hall.

"How couldn't I, it feels like death himself just entered the building." I said back, seriously what the hell just happened, did whatever trickery that Dark Wizard, who I am totally blanking out on the name of, cause this?

"Hey you guys got any idea what's going on?" Edward shouted from down the hallway.

"Not in the slightest, but whatever it is its putting me on edge." I shouted back.

"Quiet you two" Gilliam shouted over both of us, "Ears open and listen."

We all fell silent, holding our breaths and not moving as we tried to hear whatever had caught Gilliam's attention. A few silent moments and I heard it, the pounding of dozens of feet, way more than there should have been at this time of night, and they sounded like they were coming from Gilliam's direction.

"Everyone over here now" Gilliam growled, and we all rapidly complied, Amelia and I exchanging nervous glances as we did so.

As soon as we were all clustered around our sergeant he continued "I don't like abandoning our posts but we are the closest group to that noise. Ready yourselves and follow me."

With that Gilliam turned and began moving at a swift jog toward the source of the noise, the rest of us following in quickly behind him.

"What do you think is going on?" Amelia whispered, just loud enough for me to hear.

Of course I had a pretty good hunch what was going on, but I wasn't going to reveal that fact instead I said "No idea but I am betting it's not going to be good, if we get into a fight remember your training. I'll keep them off your back."

Amelia nearly went as white as a sheet at the prospect of an actual fight, and I wasn't handling it much better. I could feel my hands shaking and I lowered my helmets visor to hide the worried look I was certain was crossing my face. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Edward and Leonardo were both looking in every direction, jumping at the slightest sounds, while Nephenee and Koel had gone silent, not even a sarcastic comment came from Koel as we approached the noise.

As we entered yet another hallway, this one running parallel to the Exalt's chambers, the noise grew to its loudest. We could hear it echoing through the doors that lead outside. Gilliam put up a hand to bring us to a stop, which we managed to do without running into eachother by a mix of luck and good spacing.

Then he pointed to an inner door and said "Everyone around that door, now!"

We all moved at a full run toward the door in question, unsure of the reason for our sergeants hurry, until a team of soldiers came out of an outer doorway down the hallway. The new group was immediately recognizable, between the red colour and their odd armour, as not some of our own.

"Assassins" Leonardo shouted as he saw the group. Taking a second to stop and let loose an arrow into the new arrivals. The bolt found its mark and sent one of the assassins to the ground. Thank god for the kid being a good shot, as it threw the enemy group into confusion, and bought us time to set up a ring around the door, with Leonardo setting up on the steps that lead up to the thick portal, giving him a clear shot over our heads, and Amelia off to my right, beside the wall.

"Kill em all." One of the assassins said when they had gotten their bearings back, pointing at our group.

"Stick together and you'll all get out of here alive" Gilliam said from the front of our group.

"Don't forget to stick it to them too." Koel added with a smirk.

Another twang from Leonardo's bow made everyone shut up, the archer's arrow sadly didn't bringing down its target, and before he could fire again they were on us. One of the assassin's running up to me, his sword held high. My guess was that these guys weren't very well trained, and I drove my lance forward, the assassin side stepping around my thrust, but he moved the wrong way and left my lance under his sword arm. Letting my lance get caught on the tile I pulled my end high into the air and jammed it under his shoulder, the result of which was the assassin's arm being unable to swing down. Bringing my foot up I pushed him away with a violent kick and while he was still stumbling I drove the spear through his ribcage. The poor bastard managed to stumble off the end of the spear before he fell to the ground in a growing pool of blood.

Before I could think on my first kill I heard a loud squelch along with a cry of pain from my right. Whipping my head over, worried that I might have just failed to watch my partner's back, only to see Amelia staring wide eyed at an assassin that was dragging down the end of her lance. It looked like the guy had managed to impale himself on her hastily raised weapon. Taking just the briefest moment I stepped over and pushed the body off Amelia's lance, and clapped the girl on the shoulder.

"Think about it later, right now stay alive." I said before another assassin stalled out just infront of us, the demise of his two compatriots having dulled his bloodlust. Before I could make a move toward him an arrow sprouted from his eye and with a scream he dropped to the ground, leaving us clear for the moment. Taking a look at the rest of the squad I saw Koel swing at an assassin with his sword, which the assassin dodged, but before the enemy could make a move Nephenee jabbed her lance under the distracted assassins shoulder and through to his lung. Gilliam and Aran were both dueling with their own opponents, but as I watched, Gilliam slammed his lance into his opponent hard enough to knock the guy into the air, and then he promptly threw out his shield to catch a strike that was heading for Aran. Aran for his part recovered from the surprise of the sergeant saving his life, and ran his target through. Behind the immediate line of corpses around us were another two felled by Leonardo's arrows.

Taking a moment to catch our breath we nearly jumped out of our skin when the door opened behind us, Edward spinning around and slashing at the new arrival, only for his blade to be parried mid-way.

"Hold it, we on your side" the new arrival said, and when we got a better look most of our eyes bugged out. Infront of us was none other than Chrom himself, with what looked like Lucinia behind him.

Gilliam was the first out of us to react, snapping off a salute to the Lord, "Sorry my Liege, as you can see we just finished off a group of assassins, it's not safe here."

"No its not but that isn't going to stop me from being here. There are more assassins where these came from, if you can hold this doorway my Shepherds can move on the flanks to take them out." Chrom said as he looked over our squad.

"As you command my Lord." Gilliam replied.

Before Chrom could reply again Amelia piped up, her voice high with nervousness "Are they after the Exalt?"

As soon as she said it she cringed in embarrassment, Chrom didn't seem to mind the question though and said "Yes they are and I don't think I need to tell you all how important it is that they fail." Then he turned back through the door, the last thing we heard before he disappeared into the inner castle was "May Naga be with you."

"You heard him, make sure not one assassin gets past us." Gilliam said as he turned back to the face the outer doors.

"We'll defend the Exalt to our last breath" Aran added.

"I'd rather it not be our last breath if that's fine with you." Koel said.

Nephenee just sighed at her partner's statement before giving him a slight hit to the back of the head.

"If you're gonna act like that we're both gonna be in hot water." She added.

"I don't think we could get in much hotter water right now if there was a mage here."

Before that banter could continue a fireball streaked by and smashed into the wall.

"You just had to say that didn't you Koel." I said as I looked for the mage. It didn't take more than a moment to spot the new arrivals, which consisted of the mage and another team of brutes, these ones with a mix of axes and swords.

Readying ourselves for the coming fight we watched as one of Leonardo's arrows flew across the hall toward the mage, before pinging of a shield of fire that appeared. Dammit, what the hell? They didn't have that in the games.

The next fireball from the mage wasn't particularly well aimed, I can only assume the mage had meant to go after Leonardo, but the fireball died out less than halfway across the hall. Gravity took effect on the projectile and pulled it down into us melee fighters at the base of the stairs, more specifically it was flying toward the Amelia, who was standing stock still in the face of the incoming fireball. Reacting just in time I pushed her out of the way of the fireball and raised my shield to absorb the brunt of the impact. Fire pushing around the sides of my shield and leaving half of my face feeling raw, along with a few places where the armour didn't cover.

It also set my lance on fire. Deciding that putting out the flames that were spreading rapidly along the wooden haft was a lost cause I tossed it out infront of me, hoping it might trip up any attackers, and pulled out my sword. Slipping into a crouch as Amelia recovered beside me and another pair of assassins rushed us. These new guys actually knew what they were doing, unlike the first wave, and my opponent parried any strike I sent his way. After the first few swings I was put on the defensive and I could feel my shield arm wearing down from repeated strikes, I wasn't going to last much longer like this. Out of the corner of my visor I saw the assassin that Amelia was fighting stumble back before I heard a shout from my partner.

"Duck!"

Definitely not a word I was expecting to hear right now but I complied with regardless. I was rewarded with a splatter of blood hitting my faceplate as Amelia swung her lance in an arc, cutting open the necks of both my opponent and her own, thank god for critical hits.

"Thanks" I huffed out as I straightened back out, before dodging out of the way of another fireball.

"Just… paying you back… for before." Amelia replied, sounding as tired as I felt. If this kept up we were going to be killed by exhaustion before we ran out of enemies. We were all still recruits and none of us had the endurance for this, except maybe Gilliam who looked totally unaffected by the fighting. Even Koel, with his lighter load, was panting as he cut open another of the assassins.

The fighting continued like that for another few minutes as more assassins poured in. I collected a few more nicks, some more serious cuts, and my visor saved me from what would have been a fatal blow more than once. Amelia has also managed to save me a few times with a well-timed stab or a well-placed block, and I repaid the favour when I could. Leonardo eventually dealt with the mage, but not before Edward gained a few burns similar to mine.

It was just as we were looking to be crushed under a tide of opponents when another team of new arrivals appeared at the each end of the hallway. Distracted as we were with the targets infront of us we didn't take note of them till they started cutting the assassins down from the rear.

"By the Gods, our reinforcements are here!" Aran shouted as he finished off another assassin, and he barely had the strength to pull his lance out of his opponent before another set on him. I wasn't faring much better, my throat and lungs felt like they were on fire, and my arms felt like noodles. By mostly luck I fended off my attacker, and beside me Amelia wasn't doing much better beside me. Thank god the Shepherds were quick though, and before I knew it the man opposite me had a blade sprouting from his chest, the other assassins falling only moments later.

Only moments after the battle ended I raised my visor and doubled over, adding the contents of my stomach to the mess on the floor, the exhaustion and the carnage around me catching up to me in full. Amelia was leaning up against her lance white as a sheet and coughing her lungs up, Koel and Nephenee nearly fell over but recovered and leaned on the wall, Leonardo and Edward collapsed on the stairs, and Aran was kept upright by Gilliam's hand on his shoulder, the sergeant as unphased as always.

From the surrounding ring of the Shepherds stepped out Chrom and Frederick, the latter taking notice of our sergeant and saying without changing his expression, "Gilliam it's good to see you again, but what are you doing here?"

"Yes I would like to know as well, mostly why you were the only group to arrive to help, what unit are you anyways?" Chrom said added.

"7th recruit squad my liege," Gilliam said, "We were on guard nearby and heard the assassins arriving, as for where the other groups are I cannot tell you."

Chrom, and many of the Shepherds raised an eyebrow at the mention that we were recruits, and to be honest I was just as surprised as they were. I am not sure what was watching over us but we somehow made it out of that mess without anyone dead or in obviously critical condition. Some of the wounds I had picked up might kill me though if I don't get them looked at.

"A bunch of recruits made this mess?" A redheaded woman, who I recognized as Sully, said.

"It would elucidate why that one regurgitated the contents of his digestive track over the floor." Said another voice that I could only assume was Muriel.

"Regardless of your training you all fought like true soldiers of Ylisse," Chrom said, "and were these better times I would see you all rewarded for your actions. For now though I have nothing to give but my thanks for helping me protect my sister."

As he was saying that I felt my exhaustion wane slightly, though I still felt like collapsing, the pain from the various nicks I took disappeared and my burns seemed to cool. I noticed that the rest of the members of my squad seemed to perk up too.

"We can also help you deal with your injuries." Chrom added with a small smile, "Though I still think most of you all look like you're about to collapse. Gilliam I need you to give me a report about what happened here, the rest of your squad should go try to get some rest."

"You heard him." Gilliam said as he turned us around and practically pushed our sorry rears out of the hallway toward our barracks. As soon as the sergeant turned back to talk with Chrom we nearly collapsed again, Aran stumbling before he re-caught his balance on the wall. None of us said a word till we got back to the barracks themselves, too tired and the same time, too hyped up on adrenaline. None of us even took off our armour as we collapsed into our various bunks, and let silence take over.

Today was the first time I had actually killed someone, and to be honest I really don't know how I felt about it. It just didn't feel… real? I just felt empty, not horrified at what I did, but there was no pride in victory. I mean I should feel terrible, I just ended the lives of atleast a few people, but I was defending myself. Not only that I just, couldn't believe that the people I was fighting were actual people. Less than a month ago they were nothing but characters on a screen, and I was still certain that this was nothing but a coma induced dream. It's not like those wounds I took earlier didn't hurt, but the brain was a powerful organ, and it's done worse to me in dreams before.

A loud series of rustles from the rest of the room snapped me out of my thought process, looking up at the ceiling I said to the room "Still awake eh?"

A muted chorus of "yes"s came back, followed by a collective sigh.

"I expected our first battle to be… well not that" Leonardo said from his corner of the room.

"Same here, I reckoned it would be brutal but that was somethin' else." Nephenee added.

"Maybe it'll get easier." Edward piped in, his tone saying that he didn't mean it in the slightest.

"It never gets easier" Koel commented, just barely loud enough for us to hear, "Or if it does you're as good as dead."

"You sound like you have some experience" Aran said from his bunk.

The minutes rolled by and the only response we got from Koel was him rolling over to bury his face in his bunk. As the silence continued I felt my eyelids getting heavier and heavier, and throughout the room the sounds of snoring began to pick up. As sleep took me the last thing heard someone shifting out of their bed.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes: Well as promised, 2 weeks between updates (just barely, got hit with some RL stuff so sorry if this chapter feels a bit rushed), other then that its a bit of a breather chapters between this and that plot that MCs been worrying about all this time, so its a bit short. Still though hope you guys like it, and hope I've managed to get most of the grammar errors this time.

Catoust: Thanks for the second review, hope I've managed to catch those niggling little errors and hopefully I'm getting some more character development going (hopefully).

Disclaimer: If I owned Fire Emblem it would be easier to get ahold of battle calculators online.

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Chapter 3: The Team's day off (and some Drunken (Mis)Adventures)

The next morning was not pleasant, the exhaustion from yesterday came back in full force. When I tried to get out of bed I couldn't lift my arms, or my legs, or anything really. Trying a bit harder I managed to roll myself onto my side, and then promptly right off the side of the bunk, hitting the ground with a loud clatter of metal as I remembered I was still wearing my armour.

"Uurrrrrrrgh," I groaned from the floor, my head pounding like someone took a jackhammer to it.

"Uurrrrrrgh," Another groan with a much higher pitch, came from Amelia. I guess my trip to the ground woke her up, "Why did you have to wake me up?" the girl mumbled to no one in particular.

"I'm sorry the ground didn't give me much of a choice on the meeting time," I said back.

"Why are you even up? I feel like I could keep sleeping till noon, even if I could actually move my arms."

"From the brief glance at the window I got while I tumbled out of bed, I think it's already past noon."

"Would you two shut up please, I want to make good use of what little time we likely have left till Gilliam stomps in here," Edward added from his bed.

Moments later fate decided to screw with us and Gilliam walked into the room. Taking one look over the group of us, particularly me, face first on the floor, and sighed "Everyone get up."

"I can 'ardly move Sarg," Nephenee said.

"Same here, as much as I enjoy this view of the floor I would be standing up if I could."

"Once you actually get moving it will be better," Koel said from somewhere near the door, rolling my head to the side I saw him leaning up against the wall. Seeing him standing like nothing had happened yesterday made me almost envious, but it also made me wonder how he had seen fights enough times to be used to it.

As I tried vainly to push myself off the floor I felt a strong grip on my shoulder, before getting pulled upright by Gilliam. Other than a brief moment of dizziness I managed to stay on my feet, and by the time the rest of the squad was out of bed I was stretching my stiff legs.

"Now," Gilliam said as he walked back to the door, "There will be no training today. You all just needed to get out of bed."

Just as he was leaving he turned back into the room and added "And good work yesterday, now take the day off, we are going to need to be in good shape soon enough."

After that, almost ominous warning, we all just stood in the room, unsure of what to do. So it ended up that I was the first to move, taking off my helmet and tossing it onto my bunk. It was quickly followed by the rest of my armour, leaving me in just the tunic, pants and scarf wraps that we wore under our armour.

"My god does it feel good to get out of that." I said as I looked around the room, and noticed that most of the rest of the squad was following my lead.

"Gods you're right, I forgot how heavy our armour is" Aran said as he straightened his back with a loud *crack*.

"I wish I could go back to sleep, but I think Gilliam would throw me out of the window if he found me." Leonardo said as he stretched his arms.

"Anyone got somethin in mind t' do?" Nephenee added, who was the only one of us who hadn't taken off their armour. I guess he shyness beat out how tired she had to have been feeling.

"We could go into town?" Amelia suggested.

"Aww but that's so normal," Edward complained, "Come on, someone has to have a better idea."

Five minutes, and zero suggestions later, we were heading into town. Amelia was leading the pack, with me following close behind, Edward and Leonardo taking up the middle and Koel and Nephenee in the back. I would have been trying to listen in on the two conversations going on behind me, if Amelia hadn't decided to become my tour guide. I accidentally mentioned that I hadn't been to the Capital before I had signed on, and she jumped on it before I could say anything more.

Since then I wasn't given more than a minute without the girl pointing out another place and giving me a longwinded explanation. In all honesty despite the pounding headache I was still feeling, I was happy that she was acting normal. I had to admit during the night I worried that today would be depressing, but I got the feeling that everyone was trying to put yesterday out of their minds and just enjoy our day off.

My stomach growling brought my attention back to reality and I noticed that we had arrived in one of the cities markets. The reason for my hunger was obvious enough, none of us had eaten anything all morning, and the market we were in was full of food stalls.

"Guess it's time for breakfast," I said as I looked at what was available, as the other members of the squad scattered in search of a good meal.

When we finally all got our food, which was much more diverse than anything we could have gotten in the canteen, we parked ourselves on a low stone wall on the side of the market. Conversation picked up as we ate.

"I forgot there was food this good in town," Leonardo said as he chewed away at his meal.

"Doesn't beat me mum's cooking," Nephenee added, "She could make a clod o' dirt taste great."

"No way could she beat my mom's cooking," Amelia said, and that caused me to nearly choke on my food. Wasn't Amelia's mom 'dead' in Sacred Stones? I mean I guess seeing as she was here her circumstances had to have been different but still I didn't think that would change. What could have made her join the army then?

The sounds of me coughing up my lungs, the after effect of that moment of surprise, drew the attention of the rest of the squad.

"You ok?" Edward asked.

When all I gave as a reply was more coughing I received a hard slap on the back from the younger swordsman, which successfully dislodged the food jammed in my throat, but caused me to slip off the wall. As I regained my breath and let the dull ache from the fall subside, Koel decided to say "I know we're tired and listening while eating is a challenge, but really, aren't you supposed to be one of Ylisse's finest?"

Instead of the usual silence that followed one of Koel's sarcastic comments there was a small laugh, originating from Nephenee, and soon that laugh grew a bit louder, then Amelia joined in, quickly followed by the rest of the squad, and finally Koel and myself joined in. I'm not sure why we were all laughing like lunatics at that point, it wasn't even funny really, but when we finished I wasn't really complaining. The laughing fit had relieved a bit of the tension in my arms and legs and let me push up off the ground, something I was honestly worried I wouldn't be able to do with how stiff I felt.

Following that we mostly wandered for the rest of the afternoon, and as the sun dipped down over the horizon I was beginning to think we would soon be heading back to the castle. It was to my surprise when Edward, who took over the job of leading us around town after Amelia had started going hoarse, lead us up to a tavern.

Seemed fitting really, what a better way to end the day we were supposed to be using to rest, then to get a giant hangover. I would have questioned if some of the younger members of our squad were old enough to drink, but I found I couldn't bring myself to care. Most likely that was because I was certain the legal drinking age here would be a lot younger then back home. The others weren't as certain though.

"Edward really? Remember the last time we went to a tavern?" Leonardo said in an exasperated tone.

"No not really."

"You nearly set the place on fire, got into two fights, and then spent the rest of the night doubled over."

"Well… it's not like I'm going to let that happen again," Edward said as he pushed open the door and walked in. Leonardo just sighed and followed his friend in, the rest of us just stood there for a minute, wondering just how drunk Edward had managed to get, but we decided to follow anyways.

Edward and Leonardo were apparently well acquainted with this particular tavern as the two had already found a table and a pair of drinks in the time it had taken us to come to our senses and head inside. We joined them and before we even really got a proper view of our surroundings a server came up and dropped mugs infront of all of us. Guess we don't really get a choice here.

"Well, to Ylisse," I said as I raised my mug in the air.

"To Ylisse," Everyone but Koel and Edward, who were already knocking back their drinks, replied.

Luckily for me the Tavern was serving some stout, which actually tasted pretty close to the stuff some of the members of my House brewed in their basement. The end result was what I usually did when it came to alcohol; knock it all back in one long pull. Which left me finishing at about the same time Koel and Edward did, the three of us dropping our mugs to the table with a loud 'clack'. The rest of the members of the squad ranged from Aran, who still had half of his mug left, to Amelia who had probably only taken a sip, and who was looking at Koel, Edward and I with wide eyes.

"First time?" I asked her.

"Y-yes," She stuttered back, not expecting my question.

"What are you nervous for? Don't let horror stories like whatever Edward did last time scare you."

"That's… pretty much exactly why I am nervous," She said with a nervous smile, at the same time the server was already back with more drinks for the three of us who had finished. I took this one slow, drinking only a third of my cup before putting it back down on the table. Beside me Amelia decided to take a slightly larger sip of her drink, which quickly turned into a pull when I shot back more of my cup. Hmm…

Edward was the first to finish his second drink, just as Aran and Nephenee finished their first. Leonardo appeared to have not touched the amber liquid in his cup, and as the server came back again, Edward leaned back and clapped his friend in the back.

"Come on man, even Amelia'sss drank more then you," The brown haired, apparently already somewhat drunk if that slur was anything to go by, swordsman said.

"Atleast one of us needs to be sober to deal with damage control," Leonardo said back.

"With Edward the lightweight apparently already drunk, I'm tempted to agree with you," Koel added.

"Hey I'm not drunk, sssseriously," Edward said incredulously.

"Ya and that slur is just natural for you?" I added.

"What sssslur," Edward said as he finished off yet another cup.

"I'm amazed he's ever managed to hold on long enough to cause trouble," I whispered to Amelia, who giggled a bit in response.

"The more I watch him the less I want to drink." Amelia whispered back.

"Ehh, Edward is a lightweight if I ever saw one so don't use him as a yardstick."

Letting a bit of a sly smirk cross my face I added "Don't forget though, you can't find your limits unless you test them."

Sometimes I question if I'm a terrible person, and that was one of those times, though in my very weak defense, I blame the alcohol. Amelia decided to cave to my statement and started going at her drink with a bit more enthusiasm. Still though I doubt she could get too badly destroyed, and I would hopefully remember to cut her off before it got too far.

With that on my mind the night wore on. Edward was the first out, the guy fell asleep at the table after managed to fall out of his seat repeatedly, and nearly start a fight with a support column. I still don't know how, or why, he stood up and shambled his way over to the other side of the room and started calling one of the supports names. We quickly roped him back in before he could start accidentally start something and he fell asleep a few minutes later.

Nephenee had been next, unlike Amelia she had actually been mostly keeping up with the rest of us. Which didn't really surprise me in all honesty, what did surprise me though was her decision to fall asleep on Koel's shoulder, leaving the guy fidgeting for most of the rest of the night, and left the rest of us laughing at the look on his face.

Aran had gone next, his face cradled in his hands as he mumbled something about unintelligible. Atleast it was better than earlier….

"Damn it Aran sit down," Leonardo said, his annoyance at the situation evident on his face.

"Nnnooo, yoooou will h*hic*hear the wordssss of Naaaggga," Aran shouted as he drunkenly staggered from side to side. Turns out Aran was a bit more religious than I had expected, and he had started giving a random sermon in the middle of the tavern a few minutes ago, much to the amusement of the other patrons.

"Ya, let's hear the recruitment speech for a god we already follow, unless you decided to change to the god of Alcohol in the last few hours," Koel said with a smirk, which was quickly removed as Nephenee shifted in her sleep.

"H*hic*how dare you insult the l-light."

"Ok that's enough," Leonardo shouted himself, and pushed Aran back into his seat. Once he was back in his chair the drunken soldier lost his preachy spirit and quickly ended up face first on the table.

That led us to now where Amelia, who had admittedly drank a fair bit more then we probably should have let her, was showing signs of advanced inebriation, her face red as she could barely sit straight.

"Hee~ey," she said as she leaned over toward Koel, "What did yooou doo before yoou s*hic*signed up Koel. You seem toooo know moore then usss about being a soldier."

Koel grimaced at that statement, nearly jostling Nephenee awake as he twitched. He didn't give any response though and Amelia got bored quickly. Instead of questioning Koel further she leaned back and nearly pushed me out of my chair, rolling her head onto my shoulder and looking at me.

"Aaaaand you, why don't aren't yo*hic* drunk."

I had to admit I wasn't expecting that question, but I nearly broke down laughing, but I managed to recover enough to give a little smile and say "Trade secret."

It wasn't exactly a lie. I mean I did get a lot of practice with my House. Then I noticed that Amelia give a yawn and her eyes fluttered. Even with all the alcohol flowing through my system I realized that we should probably cut this now before we had more people asleep then able to move.

Looking over at Leonardo and Koel I saw that they had both come to the same conclusion.

Shaking Amelia off my shoulder, and then promptly having to catch her before she could fall over backwards, I said "Come on Amelia, we *hic* got to get back."

With that I raised myself and the blond recruit to our feet, while Koel got Nephenee moving again, and Edward's unconscious form was dragged from its seat by Leonardo.

"Bu~ut what about Aran?" Amelia said as she looked at the man asleep on the table.

Smirking a bit I grabbed Aran's chair and pulled it back. The chair's occupant quickly jumped out of his seat at the sudden movement, and by somehow managed to stay on his feet.

"Now that that's been dealt with you able to stand up preachy?" Koel said as he walked by supporting Nephenee.

"Uhh, s*hic*sure," Aran said as he stumbled toward the door, and nearly knocked himself unconscious on the door frame.

"This… this is going to be fun," I observed

By the time we got out into the street Aran had managed to straighten up a bit more which made maneuvering our way back to the castle a fair bit easier. Of course we still ran into some problems along the way, the first of those was Edward waking up again just long enough to cause a commotion in the middle of the street.

The second was the more obvious difficulty of trying to drag back three people when two of the people doing the dragging had more alcohol in them then the ones who were being dragged. Between the stumbling all over the street, completely losing Koel and Nephenee, and the occasional falling over it was amazing the rest of us got back in good time. Most likely the only reason we did get back at all was because Leonardo was making sure those of us who were still with the group ended up falling asleep in a ditch.

Sadly we were having some difficulty falling asleep after we did get back to the barracks, mostly because we were having some difficulty detaching the people clinging to us like barnacles.

"Come on Amelia, just let go of my arm." I said to the flush faced girl.

"Noo~o" She replied while tightening her grip.

In the state I was in I couldn't free my arm, and any help I was going to get was currently occupied. Aran was asleep already, Leonardo was trying to get Edward to stay still, and we still hadn't seen Koel or Nephenee

"Dammit Koel where the hell did you run off too." Leonardo and I said at pretty much the same time.

We were all startled when the door suddenly burst open and Koel and Nephenee stepped in, looking a bit ragged, and the rouge had heard the two of us and said "Where the hell did I run off too? Better question is where the hell you guys run off too?"

The distraction caused by the sudden entry was enough for Edward to jump to his feet, and thanks to the subsequent blood rush, fall back onto his bed without any action from us.

It was also enough of a distraction for Amelia to get the upper hand, and the subsequent lack of balance pulled me down onto her bed.

The sigh from Leonardo could have probably been heard out in the hallway, but it did little to deter Amelia as she kept her iron grip on my arm. If I hadn't dissolved into a stuttering mess by that point I might have said something in my defense. By the time I regained my wits Amelia had managed to fall asleep. Her grip hadn't gotten any weaker, and if I was being totally honest, though it may have been the alcohol talking, it wasn't like I exactly minded the situation. 'Ehh' I thought,' I'll deal with the fallout in the morning,' as it was I barely had enough strength to stay awake myself.

And so I fell asleep, letting any worries about what could happen the next day stay away for another night.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Notes: Well, only chapter 4 and I am already off my posting schedule significantly. My excuse is that I have been extremely busy this last month with my co-op work term coming to an end. Between the full work week, my co-op reports that need to be done, and me putting in extra time to hopefully make sure I get a letter of recommendation out of it, my writing time got cut a fair bit. It also didn't help that I had to push my origional chapter 4 back a chapter and fit this in here to fill a time hole I had accidentally created so I had to go over this chapter a few times to make it so that I didn't feel it was just shoehorned in.

A bit of a result though is that I am not sure how well this has been proofed, I believe I managed to catch most of the errors, but I am also sure that I will quickly have a good number pointed out to me/stumble on them myself the moment I post this up. Also the chapter size has gotten slightly larger again. I think 3,500-4,500 word chapters are going to be the norm from here on out.

As always hope you guys read it and feel free to point out any errors. Replies to reviews will be at the bottom this time.

Disclaimer: Still don't own Fire Emblem, wish I did so they would all get official English translations.

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Chapter 4: Tagging Along

The first thing I thought to myself when I woke up was something along the lines of 'Thank god I was still young enough to avoid hangovers.' My second thought was a confused; 'Why do I feel heavier…?' When I cracked open my eyes I quickly figured out where the extra weight was coming from, and it made my face burn like I had gotten hit by another fireball.

Sometime during the night Amelia had detached herself from my arm and half rolled onto my chest. It took me more than a few seconds of furious mental backtracking to remember why I was in this position in the first place, and I wasn't even sure I remembered all of it. I took solace in the fact that our clothes were still on, and that no one else was awake yet. With extreme care I attempted to extract myself from the situation, and failed miserably. With only the slightest stir to warn me, Amelia's eyes opened, and she quickly went as red as I was.

"I think, if we just stay quiet, we might be able to get out of this without anyone being the wiser," I whispered.

"Too late," A rough voice came from the door, and we saw Gilliam standing there with a rather exasperated look on his face. At the sergeant's words, Amelia and I leapt to our feet, going redder still.

Then the rest of the squad was rudely woken up by the sound of Gilliam slamming the haft of his spear against his armour, and Amelia and I's embarrassment was temporarily forgotten as we laughed at Aran leaping out of bed and faceplanting on the floor. A mutter of "Ugh my head," came from the hungover soldier.

Edward on the otherhand was up and ready to go, which surprised me a bit. Frankly I was certain he would have had the worst hangover out of any of us. Leonardo, who should have been the most active out of any of us, groaned and rubbed his eyes, rolling out of bed. My guess was the only sober one among us hadn't been able to get any sleep thanks our antics.

Koel and Nephenee's reactions were rather odd though. Despite the pair having woken up in separate beds, they still blushed as heavily as Amelia and I had. The game of avoiding eye-contact that resulted between them became acutely uncomfortable. We took our armour and weaponry from the room, and stood in the corridor. Even there, there was awkwardness, chiefly between Amelia and I. Sadly the rest of the squad picked up on it, and while Leonardo and Aran didn't say anything, Edward decided to jump on it.

"So those what's up with you two?" He asked with a devilish grin that grew wider as Amelia began to stutter;

"W-w-we d-didn't do a-anything."

"Yooou sure? Cause you sound like your lying," Edward said, winking at Amelia as she started to stutter again.

Just as I was about to put a clamp over Amelia's mouth to keep her from giving the swordsman anymore wrong ideas, Leonardo cut in with an annoyed tone, "Drop it, Edward."

"Ohh come on just having some fun," The younger soldier said.

"Doesn't matter, I had enough of you having 'fun' last night."

As the two argued back and forth. I took the time to dress myself, putting on my armour and checking if my weapons had gotten dull. By the time we were all ready the other embarrassed pair came out in their full gear. I wondered how much of last night the two of them actually remembered, as it was I could only guess 'all of it', which made me wonder what happened when we had lost track of them.

"Soo….ho-" Edward started before Koel silenced him with a glare.

"Just stay quiet and no one gets their throats slit." The older man said.

"Shutting up now" Edward muttered as he backed off.

"I would prefer if everyone was in fighting shape, we have work to do." Gilliam said as he rejoined the group, "Apparently there is something wrong at the border, and the Prince wants to deal with it personally."

"So what's that got to do with us?" Edward asked.

"He requested we go with the Shepherds, apparently we made a good impression with them."

The rest of the conversation was rather drowned out in my mind because I was too busy internally cheering that we had managed to become plot important.

"Ok recruits, fall into formation!" Gilliam said as I zoned back into the conversation.

We all snapped to attention quite well, Amelia and I took up the rear of the small column we made as we marched through the halls of the barracks. I took the time to lean over and whisper to Amelia "So, how about we never talk about last night again?"

A bit of a blush came over her cheeks again as she replied "Agreed."

Shortly after that we reached the entrance of the barracks and were greeted with the sight of the Shepherds milling around in the courtyard infront of the building. Gilliam quickly pulled us to a halt infront of Chrom and threw a salute, which we all copied.

"7th Recruit Squad reporting my Lord," Our sergeant said with a salute.

"You're just in time Gilliam, also you can drop the formalities," The prince replied back.

"As you wish my Lord," Gilliam said, which elicited a small sigh from Chrom.

We barely got more than a moment before the prince turned around and shouted to the group milling around "Shepherds, move out."

* * *

"Wow, I didn't realize Ylisse was this big." I mumbled as we marched for our fifth day. Apparently we were making incredibly good progress though and would be arriving on the border shortly.

As it was the trip had been incredibly boring. The Shepherds had generally kept to themselves, and it really didn't help that we felt like we were the odd people out in this group. Which was completely true seeing as we were just some random squad of recruits brought along to help.

Still though I had expected them to be a bit friendlier. As it was Stahl and Lissa were the only two who really talked with us, and even then they rarely did so for long before they were called off to do something. Gilliam was significantly more popular than the rest of us though, possibly because unlike the rest of us he already knew a good number of the Shepherds from his years in the army.

The Exalt's Pegasus Knights on the other hand were significantly friendlier surprisingly enough, or well most of them were. Out of the four of them all but Phila were atleast approachable, though one of the girls, a rather young purple haired girl, apparently named Florina, more or less refused to talk to anyone other than Amelia or Nephenee. The other two girls were easier to talk to. The oldest one of them, Fiora, was rather protective of the youngest one, and her rather vicious gaze had driven Edward away from further attempts with Florina a good number of times this entire trip.

The third of the group, Farina, was the most approachable out of all of them in my opinion. The middle sister was rather crude yah but that wasn't really a downside as far as I was concerned. Whenever I managed to get free of Edward and Leonardo I found I was either spending most of the travel talking to her or Amelia. At the moment Amelia was chatting with Nephenee and Florina, while Edward and Leonardo were shouting at eachother about something I really didn't care about. Which left me walking aside Farina's pegasus.

"Shit is this ever getting boring," The dark purple haired girl said from atop her pegasus, "I hate having to walk places."

"That complaint would have some more weight if you were, you know, actually walking," I said, the long march was leaving me sorer and sorer every morning.

"Bah, details," The girl said with a dismissive wave, "Either way we've turned this trip from like two day's flight into the better part of a week's march."

"Ya well most of us don't have flying horses to let us move around."

"Maybe you footsloggers should get some, then I wouldn't have to be bitching at you about slowing us down."

"Can men even fly pegasi?" I asked, it was an honest question I had, since I don't think the games ever had a male pegasus knight but I couldn't remember if they had said why.

"Nah, pegasi can't stand men for some reason."

"Then why did you even suggest we get our own?"

"Cause I couldn't tell you were a man under that face plate and armour," The girl said, punctuating it with a tap to my back with the spear she was carrying, causing my armour to rattle.

"A small price to pay if it means I don't get a spear through the gut."

That conversation might have gone on a bit longer if it wasn't for Amelia arriving on my other side, the girl having evidently broken off talking with Florina.

"I still can't believe we are actually going to be fighting alongside the Shepherds," The blone girl said for what had to be the twentieth time since we left the capitol. The almost hero worship levels of glee in her voice was enough to still make me smile even if it had started to get old.

"Not much longer now I think," I replied, I certainly wasn't feeling anywhere near as eager as Amelia for the fight itself, because my initial happiness at being connected to the plot had been tempered by the relation that we were little more than a re-occurring squad of faceless mooks still, or at best some mauve shirts. Which meant our chances of survival hadn't really increased that much.

I could tell Amelia was about to say more and Farina was about to cut in, but they were both cut off by the message that we had arrived being passed down the line. Gilliam seemed to appear out of nowhere and barked, "Squad, halt."

We all stumbled to a stop and prepared our weapons. As Chrom and the Exalt walked off to, if I remember the game right, meet with the leader of Plegia. Which left us and the rest of the Shepherds to sit here and hope things went well, of course no one, especially not myself, thought this situation was actually going to come to a peaceful resolution.

The anticipation had to be the hardest part, as it always is. Very few things are worse than an actual fight, but then spending any amount of time thinking about how badly it could go is one of them. But it wasn't actually that long before Chrom and the Exalt returned, the prince shouting "To arms Shepherds, this is a rescue mission now. Gilliam, you and your troops follow us and guard backs."

"Yes my lord!" Everyone responded as we jumped to action. The Shepherds heading up the cliff in pursuit of their leader. While we followed behind, eventually they left us to guard the base of the mountain and make sure that no Plegians tried to swing in behind the Shepards.

After the initial rush of adrenaline wore off we all realized that we likely were not going to be doing much this battle. Most of the fighting would be happening up the hill, and I was fairly sure that we were just camped out on the bottom of the map right now.

The silence that hung in the air was rather stifling though, none of use liked having to wait to see how the battle would turn out. A conversation might have helped but in all honesty the rest of the squad, other than Koel, Gilliam, and myself, were pretty much stunned silent that we were actually 'fighting' with the Shepards. It was kind of funny looking at their faces. Though as I was nearly laughing at the slack jawed Edward and Amelia, I noticed it seemed to have gotten suddenly darker.

Which was when Koel and Gilliam both shouted at about the same time "Wyverns, above us."

All our heads snapped up at that point, just intime to see a trio of the dragon like creatures diving at us rapidly. We had barely five seconds before the trio reached us, and I got to say Leonardo pulled off a rather impressive snap shot that clipped one of the wyvern's riders in the shoulder. At the same time Gilliam shouted for us to scatter, the bulky knight moving surprisingly fast for all his armour.

We all complied with that order, none of us wanting to get squished underneath the giant lizards. We went so far as to bodily throw myself out of the way, landing in a clatter of armour and, on my end, causing my visor to snap down. I was still on the ground when the three wyverns landed with enough forces to make the ground shake, luckily enough for us the three were a bit stunned as well, both from the impact and at how their prey had managed to escape them.

We managed to get just enough time to push ourselves off the ground before the wyvern riders pulled themselves together and attacked. One of them going for Gilliam while the other two tried to keep us from interfering. Which they were rather good at doing with the advantage of height and having large, scaly, angry lizards on their side.

As it was having an angry mass of scales, claws and teeth, bearing down on you, with the added danger of a lance armed soldier riding on the back of it, was not an enjoyable experience. Even worse was that the massive bulk of the creature meant that it was near impossible to dodge fully around it, which left me with the options of either getting crushed by it, or hoping that stabbing it with my lance would drive it back. Deciding on the latter option I dodged a bite from the wyvern and drove my spear forward. With the size of the wyvern it was just about impossible to miss, and I managed to drive the tip of the spear into the creatures shoulder. It met a lot of resistance, the creature's scales acting like a set of armour. Still though the lance bit deep enough to cause the creature to rear back causing the wyvern riders lance to smash me across the side of the head and throwing me down to the ground again, instead of run through my gut like it was meant to.

My lance came with me though, along with a veritable fountain of blood from the wyvern. Throwing my arm up to keep blood out of my vision slits I saw from the corner of my eyes the wyvern and its rider recover and leap back up into the air, I wasn't sure why they hadn't gone in for the kill till I saw Aran and Amelia standing beside me with their lances at the ready.

"Thanks for the save," I said as I pushed myself back into a standing position, my head still ringing from the hit.

"Don't thank us yet, they are both still in fighting condition," Aran said as the wyvern rider looped around to dive on us, this time not giving us a chance to fight it on the ground. I was amazed the wyvern was still flying, seeing as its still bleeding wound was right near one of its wing joints. Not amazed enough to be distracted though, and in what had to be one of the dumbest things I could have done, when the wyvern passed overhead, trying to cut us apart with the creature's taloned legs, I stood my ground and stabbed upwards with my lance. One lance being ripped out of my hand and one hit to the head courtesy of the wyvern's tail later and I was flat on the ground.

Still though, the lance in its belly, along with another one at the base of its wing thanks to Aran, did manage to put the wyvern into a crash dive. The giant of a lizard shaking the earth when it landed with a loud 'thud' along with the crack of wood. If I hadn't been lying on the ground trying to sort out which way was up at the time I might have figured out that my lance had just shattered into a million pieces. Instead I started grabbing the ground around me, trying to find the weapon.

"Dammit where is it," I growled as I heard the sounds of fighting from where the wyvern had gone down.

"Screw it," I said after another few moments of searching and pushed myself off the ground while drawing my sword and pulling my shield off my back. Turning to the sound of fighting I saw Aran and Amelia both fighting the now de-mounted wyvern rider, who was being driven back by the two of them. As I watched the rider failed to pull back from blocking a stab from Amelia in time and with a clang of steel followed by a disturbingly loud squelch, the rider was run through the gut by Aran's lance.

Scanning the rest of the field I saw the rest of the squad fighting the other wyvern and rider, the lizard looking a bit worse for wear while the rider on its back had an arrow jutting out of his shoulder. I also saw Gilliam still dueling one on one with the last attacker. He was holding his own but between the teeth of the wyvern and the lance of its rider, he wasn't able to go on the offensive.

Deciding that Gilliam was the one who needed the most help I raised my sword and ran up on the wyvern. Luckily for me they were facing the opposite way from me so I managed to get right up behind them before the wyvern's tail whipped toward me, more likely just a natural movement then an attempt to kill me. Regardless though it was coming at me from the wrong direction to block with my shield so instead I slashed downward with my sword. I felt scales, flesh and bone all give way before my blade as I chopped a good third of the tail off in a single swing, eliciting a pained roar from the wyvern. The stump passing just inches infront of my helmet and sprayed me with another wash of blood.

"Gah fuck that hurts," I shouted as wyvern blood sprayed through the vision slits in my helmet and got into my eyes. The stuff felt like it was boiling and I recoiled in pain, forcing my visor up to I could try to wipe at my eyes with my sleeve. When I opened up my eyes again I immediately pulled my shield up, deflecting a strike from the wyvern's stumped tail that had been flying my way, the impact causing my teeth to shake.

On the other end of the wyvern, Gilliam was still dueling with the rider and mount, though the extra distraction I was providing managed to elevate some of the pressure on him. Either way the pair we were fighting was effectively keeping us both at bay, as every time I tried to move forward the tail came down again, striking from my left so that I could not chop at it with my sword without exposing myself.

The breakthrough came in the form of one of Leonardo's arrows, embedding itself in the rider's spine and causing him to go limp. Gilliam, now relieved of one of his attackers, managed to rapidly switch to the offensive and knocked the wyvern's head to the ground with the blunt end of his spear, before twirling it around and stabbing through the creature's skull, causing the whole lizard to tense up for a moment before going slack.

The lack of any other noises in the area lead me to believe the other wyvern and rider had been eliminated by the rest of the squad, and a quick scan of the area confirmed it, the beast lay dead from a multitude of wounds along with its rider.

Before any of us could say anything Gilliam shouted "Form back up, we don't know if there is more of them."

"Yes sir!" We all replied as we ran and formed up around our sergeant, though I was stopped by an armoured gauntlet, Gilliam staring at me for a moment before he added "And someone give Hans a vulnerary."

"What for?" I asked as Edward tossed me a vulnerary.

"You've got a concussion, and your head is bleeding. It won't fully fix the concussion but should help," The knight said before addressing everyone, "This attack does not change anything, we are going to stay here, everyone keep your eyes on the sky this time. I didn't expect they would have air cavalry but we won't make that mistake again."

Then a blinding bolt shot through the group of us and blew apart a tree, quickly followed by the sound of thunder.

"Or you know, as fun as cloud watching sounds, we can just beat up these guys," Koel said as a team of brutes and a mage stepped out of a thicket of trees.

The Plegian mage let loose another poorly aimed lightning bolt at us and instead hit the ground well infront of us, while the brutes took advantage of the disorienting thunderclap to cover the distance between our groups. I was quite thankful I had a sword at the moment as the axe users easily got to close to use a spear effectively.

It didn't take much to bash away a rather poor axe swing from one of the brutes with my shield I pushed off my back foot and ran my blade through his neck, a rather unpleasant splattering of blood followed my sword as I pulled the weapon back.

My quick takedown of the brute gave me a chance to repay Amelia for saving me earlier, striking out with the pommel of my sword and catching a brute that was winding up a swing on the girl in the side of the head, sending him sprawling. I'd be tempted to say that the Plegian army didn't even train most of its "soldiers" seeing as these guys telegraphed their attacks so badly they might as well have had neon signs telling me what they were going to do.

As it was though I had spent too much of my attention on that second brute, and it was only luck that a bolt of lightning meant for me instead passed right infront of my face.

"Leonardo can you please deal with that bastard," I shouted as a ruffian struck out at me with his sword, the attack deflecting off my shield with a clang. The lightly armoured Plegian dodged out of the way of my counter attack before he struck out again and again. I managed to block the next two strikes as well before I managed to get an opening, driving forward with my shield I threw his swing off and chopped my sword into his flank, sending him tumbling down in a pool of blood.

A third Plegian started to rush me before he took an arrow to the throat, causing me to turn and give Leonardo a glance as he shot another arrow into the brush line. Following the arrows trail I saw that our bowman finally take out the Plegian mage. Around me the rest of the Plegians were falling to our teamwork and their own incompetence.

It helped that there weren't really that many of them, and we had the advantage of a ranged combatant who could actually hit something. As I moved to take a swing at the soldier Amelia was fighting, the Plegian toppled over with a sword wound in his back. Koel standing there with a rather dour look on his face, a quick glance showed a good number of Plegians who had died in the same way.

That group though seemed to be the last of them as we spent the rest of the battle on our own with the carnage, which was less than pleasant. Luckily for us we didn't have to wait long before the Shepard's came back with Ricken and Maribelle in tow, and shortly after that we began the trek back to the capitol.

* * *

Response to reviews:

Void Songs: Hopefully this chapter doesn't ruin your expectations, and trust me when I say B-Team will be back on its own soon enough

Catoust: Ya Chapter 3 underwent a major change very late in its writing and as a result the ending got a bit messed up, hopefully I didn't make the same issues here even with the edits this chapter went through. Hopefully there won't be to much filler but its good once and a while to space out events.

Agothetiny: Sorry for the delay again, I will hopefully have more time now that I will be going back to university (1 to 5 hours of work a day instead of 8 hour of work a day) I will be able to get the post rate back ontrack.

Thanks for all the reviews, and hope I don't disappoint you guys again till finals season. ;)


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